Alliance Group hits back at Environment Southland criticism

Thursday, 1 March 2018

Environment Southland has suggested some businesses, including the Alliance Group meat processing company, had a lack of contingency planning in place when the drought struck the region this summer.

However, the Alliance Group has rejected the claims.

Water levels got so low some companies were unable to exercise their consents to take water from rivers or discharge into them, so there was a rush on to modify their consents, Environment Southland deputy chairman Lloyd McCallum said.

The Alliance Group was put in the spotlight when the issue was discussed at an Environment Southland meeting this week.

The meeting agenda says the Alliance Group withdrew an application to discharge 100 cubic metres of wastewater to the Makarewa River without contaminant limits for three hours a day, and to relax contaminant limits for the remaining 21 hours, when the decision was made to publicly notify it.

However, the Alliance Group has rejected any suggestion the application was withdrawn because of public notification, saying it withdrew the application because it rained.

McCallum suggested some short-term consents were given to Southland businesses during the drought because they did not have plans b and c in place.

'I want to make sure these environmental standards we are trying to set aren't laxed through consents to keep operations going,' he said.

He highlighted the Alliance Group when making the comments before encouraging businesses to have alternatives in place in extreme weather events.

Environment Southland senior staffer Vin Smith said he shared McCallum's concerns and Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell said the dry period had been a 'wake-up call' for some industries.

McCallum, speaking after the meeting, said a number of businesses, including the Alliance Group, found they couldn't do business as usual during the drought.

The Alliance Group knew the water levels were getting so low it was becoming difficult for it to adhere to its consents, he said.

'Hence they were applying for more consents to basically say, we want to discharge water with a lot more contaminants in it to keep going.'

'They withdrew it after the rain came,' he confirmed.

Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor said the extreme dry conditions were unprecedented for its Lorneville meat plant and many of its farmers.

The company implemented a range of contingency plans to mitigate the impact, he said.

These included minimising water usage, running its other plants at optimum capacity to process farmers' livestock, and obtaining temporary consents from Environment Southland to irrigate treated wastewater onto land it owned.

The company had also lodged temporary resource consent applications in the event the situation deteriorated, Surveyor said.

'That meant processing at Lorneville was able to continue as normal, which was welcomed by our farmers, almost 2000 employees who work at the plant and the hundreds of indirect jobs and local businesses we support.'

It was making 'significant investment' in its plants, including upgrading wastewater treatment systems to improve water quality, doing riparian plantings and developing wetlands to improve habitat such as whitebait spawning areas.